1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of heat sinks for semiconductor devices and integrated circuits.
2. Prior Art
Various configurations of heat sinks for semiconductor devices and integrated circuits are well known in the prior art. One common type of heat sink for mounting on the integrated circuit or other semiconductor device comprises a heat sink having projecting fins or legs to increase the surface area of the heat sink for heat dissipation to the surrounding area, either through free convection or forced convection (fan driven) cooling.
In some cases, heat sinks have been configured to somehow snap onto the integrated circuit or other semiconductor device. In such circumstances, the thermal contact between the integrated circuit and the heat sink can be substantially limited, as the actual area of contact between the integrated circuit and the heat sink can be only a small fraction of a potential area for such contact. In such cases, the heat transfer from the integrated circuit to the heat sink may be increased through the use of a thermally conductive grease spanning the air spaces between the heat sink and the packaged integrated circuit. In other cases, the heat sinks have been cemented to the packaged integrated circuits, providing both the mounting and the substantial absence of air spaces between the packaged integrated circuits and the heat sinks.
In the case of snap-on heat sinks, such heat sinks are readily removable to provide access to the integrated circuit pins and board traces for probing purposes, but such heat sink designs are not readily adaptable to certain integrated circuit packages, such as ball grid array integrated circuit packages. In the case of cement-on heat sinks, such heat sinks are readily adaptable to a wide variety of integrated circuit packages, including but not limited to ball grid array packages, but generally prevent reworking or probing of the integrated circuit pins and associated circuit traces in the event that board trouble shooting is required after the heat sink has been mounted.